Post by Bytor on Jul 16, 2009 21:40:58 GMT -5
-Visuals- 8.7/10
Hmmm, well, this is going to be a case of what it is, and not what it isn't. The graphics fit the game wonderfully, and while the textures aren't always great, especially in the characters themselves and in the outside textures, inside looks pretty good over all, they do look pretty good to say the least. The attention to detail is often very nice, for instance the work cubicles will have cpu's on the desk and even some flower arrangements. The true strong point however is the usage of colors. The colors match wonderfully the areas you are exploring, medical clinics are white and metallic, the mines are very orange and red, and other mechanical areas reflect exactly what you think they should. For a game which Volition released in 2001 it is a remarkable overall game.
-Sound- 8.8/10
Developers...take note, you do not, I repeat do not, have to have a sweeping sound track consisting of a 100 piece orchestra or a sound track plagued by ten different new age bands to provide wonderful ambiance to the story, less is sometimes not only good but pretty close to being great. The sound is so nice I'm going to ignore the really annoying voice overs by "neutrals'...play it, you'll see what I mean...I swear if I heard, "I'm on your side!" one more time I was going to go crazy!
-Gameplay- 8.5/10
This is basically a first person shooter, but you can put "auto-aim" on which will at least momentarily center your aim onto the closest enemy. This still takes some skill but it does help you to not shoot hundreds of rounds of ammo at targets you simply will hit only with luck and/or ricochets. Volition also includes a very interesting programming aspect called Geo-Mod, they actually introduced it here first. basically it allows you to modify the environment using explosives...can't get into a door? Blast it off and even better you can blast the area around the door and create a tunnel or entrance, unfortunately they didn't, in my opinion, go far enough. They should have made this much more prevalent throughout the game instead they seemed to make it an after thought. There are two main issues I found with the game, issue #1: in later levels there is also one aspect of the game that seriously stops it from being a great game. We all expect games to get harder as you go along BUT the curve in this becomes so pronounced it's almost silly, and issue #2 you had better make sure you finish each "level" with a good amount of hit points because not only will you start the next objective with whatever amount you finished the previous with but there also might not be any first-aid kits nearby when you do begin this next level. At times this seriously took away from the ebb and flow of the game, I'll give you an example. I finished level 57 (Unexpected Cargo very, very weak and while I did finally manage to make it to the room where the kits were it did take a few try's and certainly bogged down the game a tad...I'm not saying I want everything given to me BUT I don't think it's asking too much to have plenty of options for healing after major battles! One other annoyance was that earlier in the game two-three shots would kill the soldiers SUDDENLY, and I do mean SUDDENLY(level 52) it takes seemingly fifteen to twenty, and to make matters even more fun they can, and very often will kill you with one shot, c'mon Volition, we like hard but this becomes borderline silly. Their are also some puzzles and certain fights require you to use a certain strategy but over all Volition let's you fight as you choose, and that aspect I really enjoyed, I despise a fight where there is only one correct way to defeat your enemy.
-Story- 8.5/10
You play as Parker, a miner on Mars who, along with the other miners revolts after listening to a mysterious person called Eos who preaches revolt, the story definitely took a back seat to the action.
-Overall- 8.5/10
A truly fun game, only mild frustration at a couple of the puzzles, which do somewhat slow down the game. Don't expect a non-stop war, this game is a bit more of an attack....sneak...puzzle...search...fight, and over all the balance is very well done, certainly recommended.